We Prefer the Soaring Wyvern Blade to Dual-Blade Back Scratches / The Resolve to Hold the Line: Death Before Surrender...

It wasn't just the Great Beast. Many Sea Creatures floating on the surface had no time to react before the lightning struck, sending them straight back into the sea's embrace.

The Great Beast, writhing in pain, had not died. However, the immense agony in its back made it roll violently through the water, bringing disaster upon the Sea Creatures hiding nearby.

They had accelerated their advance earlier, and were now not far from the shore. The distance from the surface to the seabed was less than fifty meters. One could well imagine the devastation caused by a nearly hundred-meter-long monster rolling about in such shallow waters—and the Sea Creatures bore the full brunt of it.

The Sea Creatures ahead of the Great Beast found themselves in an awkward position. They did not dare retreat, lest the Great Beast's rolling body crush them into paste. Yet they could not be certain whether advancing would get them turned to charcoal by the crackling lightning overhead once they reached land.

But the Great Beast gave them no chance to react. Its successive rolls stirred up enormous waves, and amid the surging water, the Sea Creatures found themselves pushed right to the edge of the shore.

Those quick to react charged ashore and barely escaped disaster. Those too slow were instantly struck by descending lightning and sent back to the sea as nourishment.

Even so, several hundred Sea Creatures made it onto land.

Most of the guards could only stare blankly at the sea, still unable to recover from the dazzling yet terrifying sight.

Only Skadi, though equally startled by the sudden thunderstorm, quickly regained her senses through a warrior's instinct. She grabbed her weapon and cut down the Sea Creatures rushing toward her.

Ilena soon came to her senses as well. Looking at Skadi's back as she single-handedly held off the Sea Creatures storming ashore, Ilena shouted for the surrounding guards to snap out of it. This was no time to be distracted. After the first wave of Sea Creatures landed, more and more of them charged out of the sea over their comrades' corpses.

After rolling around for a while, the Great Beast finally thrashed its way back into deeper waters. Under normal circumstances, after suffering such severe injuries, it would have retreated into the deep sea to nurse its wounds before returning to settle the score another day.

But this time, it was furious. It had not even seen its enemy's shadow before nearly being struck to death by a treacherous bolt of lightning.

It could not swallow that humiliation. Once it dived underwater, it discovered that the lightning zone overhead was not particularly powerful. If it had not been carrying too many Sea Creatures on its body in order to seize the city in one blow, those little bolts would not even have been enough to scratch an itch.

That only made it angrier.

Sea Creatures behind it began scattering spores through the water. These spores possessed powerful healing properties, and the Great Beast's charred outer hide rapidly began to scab over beneath their nourishment.

Kanna looked toward the shoreline. Although the Great Beast had retreated, the Sea Creatures still refused to give up and continued their attack. Yet the Catastrophe blocking the shoreline had become a crucial barrier against them.

Half of the Sea Creatures that charged out each time were struck by lightning and sank back to the seabed. The remaining half had their movements twisted out of shape by the lingering electricity along the shore.

Even those that reached the beach could not escape Skadi's greatsword.

The battle continued for over an hour. By then, the front line had been pushed back beneath the lighthouse. Skadi and Ilena each guarded one side, keeping both ends of the line from collapsing, while mon3tr prowled around the lighthouse. Whenever a Sea Creature broke into the inner perimeter, it would rush forward with an excited shriek and tear the intruder to pieces.

At first, the guards had been terrified by mon3tr's horrifying appearance. Later, whenever they could no longer hold out, they would retreat in mon3tr's direction, and mon3tr gladly accepted the opponents delivered right to it.

It had become the most dependable sight in the guards' eyes.

Despite the fierce battle below, Kanna had no intention of going down. Half an hour earlier, she had discovered that the Great Beast had no intention of retreating. Instead, it lurked beneath the sea, restless and ready to move.

After careful observation, Kanna was shocked to discover that its severely injured body was recovering at an astonishing rate.

She immediately informed the lighthouse keeper beside her. Kal'tsit received the news from him, considered it briefly, and decided that Kanna should stay where she was for the moment. Though the defense line looked fragile, it had actually stabilized. Even if Kanna went down, there was not much she could do. Kal'tsit ordered her to keep a close watch on the Great Beast at sea. To the defenders around the lighthouse, a thousand ordinary Sea Creatures posed less of a threat than a single attack from that Great Beast.

Finally, another hour passed, and the Great Beast could no longer endure it. By then, roughly half of its injuries had healed. Though it still looked grievously wounded, it was already capable of moving again.

It would use this lighthouse—this city—to wash away the pain and humiliation it had just suffered.

Kanna took her twin swords from beside the wall and said to the lighthouse keeper,

"That big guy looks like it wants to come up again. I'll go meet it!"

With that, she kicked off with both legs and leaped from the lighthouse.

While in midair, Kanna suddenly realized a very serious problem.

In both her lives, she had been hopeless at swimming. When it came to swimming, she was practically enlightened in six of the seven openings—utterly clueless in the last one.

However, she remembered a video she had once seen. A motorcycle moving at high speed could travel across water. By all logic, she could run much faster than a motorcycle, and she was lighter too. There was no reason she should not be able to stay afloat.

With that in mind, after landing and casually stomping an innocent Sea Creature into the sand, she kicked off hard enough to leave a crater in the beach. Using the momentum, she stepped onto the water and paddled her little legs as she charged into the sea filled with thunderstorms and Sea Creatures.

Compared to rubbing backs with dual blades, I prefer the leaping dragon sword

To Sea Creatures, lightning that killed with one hit or wounded with one strike was an unlimited rechargeable battery gifted by heaven in Kanna's eyes.

She spread the power of lightning around herself, immediately drawing the surrounding thunderbolts onto her body. The lightning that could not strike the Sea Creatures through the seawater surged toward her as if it had found a channel, forming a massive pillar of light.

"Nyehehe! Eat my Tree of Crucifixion Thunder!" Feeling her lightning power rapidly replenish, Kanna rushed toward the Great Beast's face with a bell-like laugh, while its expression seemed to scream, Don't come any closer!

Before it could react and dive back underwater, Kanna stood atop its head once more, carrying the power of thunder.

The sudden intense pain drove the Great Beast into madness again.

It twisted its body, trying to shake Kanna off.

It never expected that this was exactly what Kanna wanted.

Amid the lightning, the two weapons in Kanna's hands shone with dazzling light.

She kicked off with both feet, recreating the signature spinning back-scratching technique used by dual-blade wielders against gigantic monsters in Monster Hunter.

Like a tiny spinning top charging into battle, she brought the unending lightning above her head down upon the Great Beast in a high-speed, efficient sequence of whirling slashes followed by thunderous repairs.

If it had been at full strength, then although lightning damage would have troubled the Great Beast somewhat, Kanna's weapons, barely one and a half meters long, could never have pierced its hide.

Unfortunately for it, the previous devastating strike had left more than half its thick hide nearly necrotic. In the past two hours, the spores' healing power had only restored a thin layer of fresh skin. To recover fully, it would need to hide at the seabed and sleep for centuries.

And this new skin was nowhere near as thick or sturdy as the original. Kanna's barrage of slashes tore a massive horizontal gash through it. Though the wound was not enough to cut the Great Beast in half, it was already more damaging than the earlier thunderstorm.

With a mournful cry, the Great Beast finally plunged back into the sea.

Yet the blood erupting from its wound undoubtedly demonstrated the scale of destruction Kanna's attack had caused.

Normally, after defeating an opponent, Kanna would strike a cool pose to show off. Unfortunately, she could neither fly nor swim on water, so she could only paddle her little legs and run continuously across the surface, both to observe the situation underwater and to keep herself from sinking.

The Great Beast now wished to retreat. Before, it could still blame its severe injuries on the Catastrophe and bad luck. But this attack proved that there was something on land capable of killing it.

However, the leader of the Sea Creatures' assault on Rock Bay Town found it. It would not stop the Great Beast if it chose to leave, but it hoped that before departing, it would use its magic once to trigger a tsunami, allowing the Sea Creatures to ride the waves onto the beach.

The Great Beast hesitated. Thinking of the grave injuries it had just suffered, it was indeed unwilling to slink away so miserably. Yet the creature atop it, not even as large as one of its scales, placed tremendous pressure on it. The Sea Creatures said they would send someone to keep Kanna occupied at sea. The Great Beast only needed to cast its spell once before leaving.

Upon hearing this, the Great Beast was finally tempted. It slowly rose toward the surface, preparing to deliver a devastating blow to Rock Bay Town and vent its hatred once the Sea Creatures made Kanna unable to spare attention for it.

Kanna on the surface noticed the movement below as well. Despite suffering such severe injuries, the Great Beast had not chosen to leave. Instead, it lurked dozens of meters underwater, preparing something, while many Sea Creatures closed in on her from all directions.

"Heh heh! Are you planning to bully Kanna because she can't swim?"

Kanna looked at the dense power of lightning surrounding her, and an idea suddenly flashed through her mind.

As she ran over the sea, she opened the system and asked, "Hey, System bro, using the control over lightning techniques I trained through Palm Thunder doesn't count as using Palm Thunder, right?"

"That's right!" the system promptly replied.

Seeing the system's answer, Kanna felt reassured. If it truly came down to a critical moment, missing this reward would not matter much to her. But if she could get it, there was no way she would simply let it go.

Kanna spread her weapons apart. Electric currents continuously surged from the tips of both blades. Under the incredulous gazes of the Sea Creatures and the Great Beast, and the stunned eyes of everyone on shore, the uncontrollable lightning between heaven and earth converged on Kanna's position. Then countless currents entwined and combined, forming a silver-white dragon with wings spread as wide as the Great Beast itself, painted into existence by lightning.

Drawn by the lightning, Kanna entered the dragon's forehead. In an instant, the previously illusory thunder dragon opened its eyes. In those deep blue eyes, silver-white vertical pupils carried endless pressure and killing intent, as though they gazed upon every living creature in the sea. In that instant, the Great Beast felt itself become prey, while the dragon in the sky became the hunter.

The spell it had nearly finished gathering collapsed at that single glance. Even as the magical backlash left its body wracked with unbearable pain, the Great Beast no longer cared. At a speed it had never achieved before, it broke free from the sea's restraints and desperately swam toward the outer sea, toward the depths of the endless ocean.

After being frightened out of its wits, it never approached land again.

The Sea Creatures, as a collective consciousness, suffered even more severe damage under that pressure. A large portion of the weaker Sea Creatures directly collapsed from within after sharing the pressure endured by the stronger ones. A terror they had never experienced before shattered their consciousness, leaving them as living vegetables drifting through the sea.

The Sea Creatures that barely survived by relying on the weaker ones to share the burden could only choose to retreat as well.

After all, more than seventy percent of the low-level Sea Creatures that served as their basic forces had been lost in that attack, while the Great Beast—their decisive weapon—had been scared off to who knew where. The remaining Sea Creatures determined that their plan to attack Rock Bay Town and reclaim their "brethren" had completely failed. Following this battle, the number of Sea Creatures within five hundred nautical miles of Rock Bay Town dropped by forty percent. With the humans on land certain to strengthen coastal defenses, they no longer had the ability to launch such a large-scale operation against land.

Once they confirmed their failure, the Sea Creatures decisively withdrew into the sea. When Kanna noticed their retreat, she ran back toward the shore.

The moment she reached land, before she could even catch her breath, she saw the bloodthirsty guards preparing to launch a countercharge against the Sea Creatures in the sea.

This gave her quite a fright. The thunderstorm overhead would not end until tomorrow morning, and lightning did not distinguish friend from foe.

"Don't go near the shore! It's dangerous!" Kanna waved both hands and shouted at the approaching guards.

But many guards were experiencing such an exhilarating battle for the first time, and under the sway of adrenaline, they could not hear Kanna's warnings at all. Seeing them draw closer and closer to the Catastrophe zone, Kanna could only call out to Skadi, who was nearest to her.

"Skadi, stop them! Don't let them get near the shoreline!"

Skadi was holding a Sea Creature corpse like a rag and wiping the fluids off her greatsword. Upon hearing Kanna, she casually hurled the corpse at the fastest-running guard.

The man never expected an attack from behind and immediately fell face-first to the ground. By the time he climbed back up, much of his excitement had faded.

Seeing Skadi's move, Kanna followed suit. She grabbed a Sea Creature corpse nearby and threw it at the charging guards.

With several bangs, the guards were stopped at the shore.

Ilena ran over at this point. She raised her hand and slapped the guards hard, then pointed at the thunderclouds still lingering overhead and roared,

"Are you insane, or did Sea Creatures get into your brains?! Didn't you see how miserably those monsters died near the water?! And you still dare go over there? Do you want to turn into charcoal too?!"

Whether they had been slapped awake or jolted back to their senses by Ilena's furious roar, the crowd finally calmed down from the atmosphere of victory.

A well-equipped force entered Rock Bay Town at that moment. Upon seeing the reinforcements arrive, Dona, who had been handling rear duties, took the lead and brought the group toward the lighthouse.

Along the way, they saw the terrifying thunder dragon amid the storm clouds. Yet even though they did not know it was an ally, not a single member of the force hesitated. No matter how terrifying the enemy ahead might be, until death came, they would only choose to keep swinging their swords and lifting their lanterns in their final moments.

This force was the Inquisition, led by the Grand Inquisitor, which had been the first to arrive after receiving orders.

When they reached the lighthouse, all they saw were guards sprawled across the ground and the lighthouse still shining brilliantly.

Kal'tsit emerged from the lighthouse. When she saw the person leading the group, she paused. He was an acquaintance—the Dasohan whom Saint Carmen had previously intended to assign as her guide.

Dasohan nodded solemnly to Kal'tsit. "Doctor Kal'tsit, you've worked hard. It seems we arrived a little late."

Kal'tsit dusted off her hands and looked at Dasohan and the Inquisition members behind him.

"Grand Inquisitor Dasohan, you are not late. Though we appear to have repelled the attack from the deep sea, there are still many deep-sea spies among Rock Bay Town's residents. Furthermore, the town's defense and reconstruction after this incident will require your assistance."

Although they had held off the deep-sea attack by relying on the defensive fortifications prepared around the lighthouse, more than half the buildings along the coast had been destroyed in this battle. Postwar reconstruction would be a formidable task, especially since no one knew whether the deep sea would attack again.

"What are the casualties?" Though he had not personally participated in the earlier battle, the surrounding destruction made its brutality clear.

Kal'tsit sighed. "Nearly thirty percent of the guards were killed. Every survivor is injured, and more than twenty seriously wounded people are gathered inside the lighthouse awaiting emergency treatment."

Dasohan could not help drawing in a sharp breath when he heard those numbers.

From what he could see, at least three hundred guards had fought here. If thirty percent had died, that meant around a hundred people were dead.

For morale not to have collapsed after losses like that sounded almost unbelievable.

"There was no choice. Our opponents weren't human. Behind us were our families, wives, and children in Rock Bay Town. Even if we wanted to surrender, we had no chance."

The guard captain, a middle-aged Liberi man, walked over. Yet his empty left sleeve and pale face made the severity of his injuries obvious.

"Captain, didn't I tell you to rest in the tower? If we find the severed limb that was bitten off, there may still be a chance to reattach it." Kal'tsit frowned at the guard captain for ignoring medical advice and coming outside on his own.

"Forget it! What I learned was the Supreme Art. This swordsmanship demands a great deal from the body. Even if my arm can be reattached, I imagine it won't move as freely as before. Without the Supreme Art, I'm just an ordinary Iberian swordsman." There was regret in the guard captain's tone, but the smile on his face showed that he did not regret his current state.

"You are a great swordsman." Skadi, who had walked over to Kal'tsit after the battle, rarely offered such praise to the one-armed guard captain. She was still carrying a dead Sea Creature in one hand.

"During the battle, you saved at least twenty lives. If you hadn't blocked a surprise attack from a Sea Creature for one of your men, you would not have lost that arm. If I remember correctly, that arm should be inside this Sea Creature."

After saying that, Skadi shook the corpse in her hand.

Upon hearing her words, a flash of sword light descended from the air, instantly disemboweling the Sea Creature.

At some point, Dasohan had drawn a longsword. He was the one who acted.

Sure enough, after the creature was split in two, a severed arm fell out from its body.

Kal'tsit picked up the arm and examined it. "It's not a major problem. After cleaning it, we can still reattach it. It may not work as well as before, but two hands are better than one."

Gratitude appeared in the guard captain's eyes. Before he could speak, Dasohan said,

"As one of Rock Bay Town's remaining senior figures, I will report every detail of your performance in this incident to the higher-ups. You will receive the recognition you deserve. But before that, the work ahead in Rock Bay Town will still require your assistance."

The guard captain nodded in agreement.

After they finished speaking, Dasohan waved a hand. The Inquisition took over the guards' duties and began clearing up the surrounding aftermath. Kanna also walked over from behind.

"Hey, mister! Tell your people not to go near the shore. It's really dangerous there!"

Seeing newcomers arrive, Kanna hurriedly spoke up, lest someone unaware of the situation walk to the shore, get struck dead by lightning, and somehow blame her for it afterward.

Dasohan had naturally noticed the anomaly over Rock Bay Town's waters, but there was a mountain of work to begin, and he had not yet had the chance to ask about it.

He looked toward Ilena, whose blood and bodily fluids had nearly congealed all over her, wanting to learn the details.

"As you can see, a powerful spell is active over the sea. According to its caster—this Kanna—the spell indiscriminately attacks anyone who enters its range. Thanks to that powerful spell, less than a quarter of those sea monsters actually made it ashore, which was why we barely managed to hold them off."

Everyone atop the tower had personally witnessed Kanna casting the spell, so there was no way to hide it anyway. Kanna had not tried to hide it either. Kal'tsit had already discussed it with her, so Ilena had no qualms about selling Kanna out.